Recommendations for Audio Recording Inferface for Acoustic Guitar & Vocals?

[kongwee]

=Fauxfire

Latency mean when you speak into mic, the speaker output is a bit delay. Mic->Audio Interface->DAW->Audio Interface-Speaker. Along the way there will be a bit of delay. You might thought it is a reverb if the latency is more than 20ms.

Soundproof mean do not let sound escape or enter the room. "Reverb" or "echo" is caused by the sound bouncing inside the room. Those foam thing is to absorb reflected sound. Of cos it help a bit on sound isolation. You will come across bass trap, studio panel, acoustic panel.....etc they are more for controlling the room sound. Sound isolation take a much bigger work. Normally the walls are heavily treated, double glass windows, double doors....etc.

If you put curtain, sofa.....etc in a room. It will affect overall character of the room. This is too much to explain. Go internet search topic like room node or comb filter. For all these you need to read a bit on the basic of sound.How sound travel. If you are more on books, then go library and search this book, http://www.stereosoundbook.com/ . It is also worth to buy as a reference book.

 

[blueprintstudios]

fauxfire : latency is caused by poor computer performance, poor settings configurations, poor drivers. or having too many plugins/vst/processors running at the same time while recording. most people can work with latencies of 13ms, any more than that (bad) you're gonna be like, saying "AH!" to the microphone and a while later (26ms latency for example) you're gonna hear the "AH!" echo back on your headphones and this affects recording performance as a distraction eventually.

there's 2 kinds of sound material treatments in layman terms : "Sound Treatment" to reduce/prevent sound from bouncing all over the place. If you've been to Singapore Arts Museum, if you clap one time, "PAK!" the sound bounces all over the place giving the "P!....aahh.h.......kk...." that is reverb, and sound treatment absorbs sound. it doesn't do anything to prevent your neighbours from complaining but if your microphone had a mouth it would say "this room sucks."

2nd is "Sound Isolation" which is generally known as "soundproofing" , to prevent outside sound from coming in, and prevent inside sound from going out. ever shoved your face into the pillow and scream/shouted but it sounds softer than normal speech volume? something like that. the pillow is a "sound isolation" (depending on the density) and treatment at the same time (absorbing the sound from bouncing)

curtains on walls,egg cartons bla blabla is a mini effect to reduce sound bouncing all over the place, unless you want your room to be ridden with silverfish (eating on the egg cartons)/cockroaches : health hazard, and dust and one cigarrette setting your entire house on fire : fire hazard. what you heard from people is that they've survived these hazards or currently living with it and the reaper is just hiding right beneath all these materials.to answer your question, yes it's only true to an extent, but impractical. so it's at your own risk.

in the mean time, you don't need to learn about radiation to operate a microwave. get your hands dirty and cook some stuff. eventually when you become a self trained chef/kitchen appliance electrician you can read all you want.

 

[kongwee]

The other book have not link to pro audio but good to read.

http://www.hifibooks.com/heaudio.html

Some of the interesting topic will be room,acoustic treatment, transducer type, loudspeaker placement......

The two books I mention, used to own them, but I lost them.

 

[blueprintstudios]

fauxfire : before I forget to mention, everything I've learned about audio over the last 14 years was self learned thanks to the internet (there was no google in 1997.) , library, LISTENING , getting alot of experience and a whole lot of common sense. I'm currently aged 27.

today in 2011 you can learn from youtube, tutorials put up by people, google etc. so coming from me, a whole lot of theory is not going to produce anything that makes sound apart from all talk. just do it.

 

[Fauxfire]

Hahaha yea I've learned a whole lot from you guys! Really appreciate the help!

I'm ready to go try it all out now, its just that now I need to convince myself and justify the amount of money that I'm about to spend buying all those equipment. Given the fact that I'm about to matriculate into NUS this August, I don't exactly have the liberty to "just spend". Haha

You think the equipments (Line 6 POD Studio UX1 or UX2, AT2020 Mic) will be cheaper during the upcoming GSS and IT Fair??
If not, i'm thinking of getting them via Amazon cos they've got the lowest price so far.
Either that, or i'll just keep scouring the SOFT Classifieds and Ebay for a cheaper one.

 

[carboxymoron]

Unlikely that they'll be much cheaper. Line 6 stuff, perhaps if City Music has a booth, I'm not sure which of the IT fair type of events they participate in. Their best prices are still at the year end sale.

Classifieds here are good, just gotta wait. Toneports change hands quite often I think.

 

[Fauxfire]

Hey all!

While looking at other audio interfaces, I was recommended the following two models:
1. PreSonus Audiobox USB
2. Tascam US-122 MKII

What are you guys' take on this?

 

[blueprintstudios]

i vote presonus.

 

[Fauxfire]

Erm... Is there like a drastic difference between the two?
They both look pretty similar to me. >.<

 

[blueprintstudios]

http://www.google.com.sg/search?q=Tascam+US-122+MKII+sucks

http://www.google.com.sg/search?q=PreSonus+Audiobox+USB+sucks

http://www.soft.com.sg/forum/gear-computer-sw/196741-recommendations-new-setup.html

be your own judge i guess?

I've never used tascam in my whole life. can't say anything definite about tascam, but just voting. y'know, like if I were you. I'd get the presonus.

 

[Zerox Millienium]

USB audio interfaces may not perform well under certain circumstances such as:
* incompatible USB chipset as a result the audio interface does not operate optimally with the host computer,
* the host computer is overloaded with too many USB peripherals and having defective USB peripherals connected on the same bus might impede performance.

I own a Tascam and have connected to my Athlon X2 Duo Core PC running Windows 7 x64 with 8GB of RAM.

I get reasonable performance from the audio interface only when I set the latency to the highest. If I choose to use lower latency settings, I'll get a lot of underruns, pops, cackles and clicks from my software DAW.

I'm not using it to record anything though.

I was attracted to the idea of working with 24/96 format instead of 24/48 offered by the Presonus AudioBox USB. Oh well, maybe the Presonus box will perform better. I don't know.

Regards.

 

[Fauxfire]

Blueprintstudios:
Wow you definitely have a WHOLE LOTTA links! They're insanely helpful!!

Hmmn yea lucky you mentioned the PreSonus Audiobox... It's slightly cheaper and has some pretty good reviews as well!
I guess for now its the PreSonus over the Line 6...
Maybe when I revive my old electric guitar at home I might consider the Line 6 again...

Zerox Millienium:
Ohhh so I guess the Tascam isn't really recommended then?
Well, the helpful guys over at Luthermusic recommended me the above-mentioned models yesterday, so I'm just widening my options for now.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

At the moment, my top top choices for my home studio set up will be:
- Audio Technica AT2020 Condenser Mic
- PreSonus Audiobox USB (this comes with Cubase, which is quite a good DAW right..?)

Are there any special cables or other peripherals that I should get?
I have some guitar cables now, and I know I should probably get a mic stand and a pop filter...
But besides this, anything else that I should know about?

 

[kongwee]

My student recently also got these two too.

Headphone?

 

[carboxymoron]

Since you have no existing biases towards any DAW, if you're feeling adventurous you can try the severely underrated REAPER http://www.reaper.fm/

If not whichever "lite" version of Cubase bundled with the interface will suffice, and it's admittedly easier to find help with a common DAW when you run into any issues.

Make your own pop filter, save money http://www.google.com/search?q=diy+pop+filter

 

[Fauxfire]

Kongwee:
Oh yea! Yup already got that covered!
Wow are you a teacher in the music industry???

Carboxymoron:
Haha why is it underated?? I suppose you mean it's pretty good?
How about Audacity and Adobe Audition?

 

[kongwee]

Well, I am freelance. Must sub many things as possible including teaching.

As Carboxymoron said, play with Reaper. It is bit hard to understand if you have not touch a full DAW. But once you know it, it is the cheapest DAW to own and you only lack good quality plug-ins. Some of lite version of other DAW sometime limit here and there, you don't get the feel of full workflow. Get Reaper, play with it for one year. Get as many free plug-ins as possible. After that you will clearly know what you want.

 

[blueprintstudios]

fauxfire : it's not that I have a lot of links, it's just that these questions has been asked over and over the years here at soft as well as the many home studios I've setup for people.

if presonus audiobox comes with its own DAW (presonus studio one / cubase LE or something) , then you should utilize it until you're ready to operate another DAW (after a while everything is pretty similar) confidently. then go purchase reaper or if you got the cash, cubase 6.

this will be your current signal chain : vocals/guitars > popfilter (vox) > at2020+micstand > xlr > audiobox > USB > laptop/computer > DAW || audiobox > headphone out , or 1/4"toRCAto1/8"stereo > pc speakers, or whatever speakers you're using.

Audacity is free, it's 'noob' . I used it in the "diy record under $50" guide.
Adobe Audition is around $330+ USD : and it's not a very full fledge DAW in my opinion.
Cubase : http://www.steinberg.net/en/products/cubase/cubase6_versions.html
Reaper : is around $50USD for non profit license.
Cubase LE / whatever comes with your DAW = free. it may be "limited" use. but since you're new should be ok.
there's others like Sonar/Ableton etc, each has its own plus and minuses.

I highly recommend you make use of your bundled DAW, and until you're ready, move on to reaper etc.

 

[Fauxfire]

Kongwee:
Hmmn yea i think I should play around with what I have first to familiarize with all the commands.
I mean, the functions should be similar to all DAW right? The only different between them being the special effects and stuff?
I currently have both Audacity and Adobe Audition installed on my com... Guess its time for some experimenting!

Blueprintstudios:
Ohhh thanks for that signal chain! Gives me something to visualize. Guess that's all I need to get for now then!
And seems like both of you really recommend Reaper! Like I said, I shall go experiment a bit first to get a feel of the stuff.


Haha this is really exciting! Maybe when I've recorded something I'll post it up here for you guys to see if I should do anything in a better way?

 

[kongwee]

Kongwee:
Hmmn yea i think I should play around with what I have first to familiarize with all the commands.
I mean, the functions should be similar to all DAW right? The only different between them being the special effects and stuff?
I currently have both Audacity and Adobe Audition installed on my com... Guess its time for some experimenting!

Well you can skip Audacity.... I think Adobe Audition is a bit different, as I read it support audio stuff only.

 

[Fauxfire]

Oh dear... I'm faced with a dilemma again...
I'm sorry guys but I really cannot make up my mind between the two: Line 6 POD Studio UX2 and Presonus Audiobox...

My main purpose will be to record vocals and acoustic guitar for song covers that I intend to do.
Hopefully in the future I might add more variations such as drums (cajon, to be more specific), and electric guitars and basses.

Both seem to be pretty similar in the things that they do, just that Line 6 seems to throw in more stuff
I also understand that PreSonus specializes in audio recording instruments while Line 6 specializes in effects and amps.
But is this a big factor in their products?
From what I read in reviews, both have VERY positive reviews, hence intensifying my dilemma. >.<

So in your professional opinions, which should I get?
Thank you all for your patience hahaha